This I calculated to be the entire
length of the rope we had brought with us, by which I resolved to be
lowered. Bantum tried to dissuade me from my project, urging that the
risk was too great; but I was determined that, having come so far, I
would not go back without being able to make some report of the valley
we had undertaken to explore, and a descent by means of the rope seemed
to be the only method, nor could Bantum suggest any other.
I now knotted at one end of the rope a cradle in which I could sit.
while being lowered, and so long as the rope held, of which there
appeared to be no reason to doubt, for my weight was well within its
compass, I did not anticipate danger.
All being made ready, and every possible precaution taken against
accident, I was let down from the top of the cliff to what looked like
the dried-up course of a stream composed of pebbles and wash-dirt. The
whole valley presented the most dreary and desolate appearance. The
high cliffs by which it was surrounded rose like perpendicular walls,
casting deep shadows, so that the sun's rays never penetrated to the
floor, for which reason it was destitute of verdure, barren to the eye,
and depressing to the senses.
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